Teenage Pregnancy: A Personal Journey

Tufino

When I was sixteen years old I became pregnant with my first child and I felt like my whole world was ending in a matter of a second. I felt alone and scared because I didn’t know how I was going to tell my parents that I was pregnant. I remember pretending to act like everything was ok but my father was noticing my changes. He would ask me why I was so tired all the time and why I was always sleeping so much. I would always say I was just overwhelmed with school work.

As time passed by my body started to change and I went from 100 pounds to 120 pounds.

I thought I was smarter then everyone so I decided to wear baggy clothing so my body changes wouldn’t be noticeable. By the time I reached four months pregnant I was not getting the proper

That I needed to take my prenatal vitamins because I had missed the 1st 4 months of my pregnancy and that the baby needed the vitamins to be stronger.

Few weeks later I went for another checkup and I had to be rushed to the hospital by ambulance. I was dilating and the baby was coming so I had to get an emergency surgery to insert a cyrcloge to prevent delivering early. The surgery was successful, for the rest of my pregnancy I was on bed rest and I couldn’t walk. I had to get home schooled until I delivered.

Nurses also would come to my home to check up on me and educate me on parenting. Eventually my parents became more supportive of my pregnancy after the big delivery scare. Which made me feel a little bit better because I didn’t have anyone else’s support due to my age. Many family members would judge me for my mistake and they wouldn’t allow my cousins to be around me because I was pregnant at sixteen.

As the months went by I got bigger and bigger, I didn’t miss any more doctors’ appointments. I went for an ultrasound and found out I was having a little girl and my parents were very excited. By the time I was nearly nine months pregnant, my mother rented out an entire restaurant and surprised me with a beautiful baby shower. All I could do was cry

As my delivery date approached I was getting very anxious and scared reality was starting to kick in. I was actually bringing in a human being to the world. On January 8, 2000 I was feeling very sick I thought I was just having normal constipation pain, little did I know those where actual contractions. From the pain I ended up going to bed around 10pm that night a few hours later my sister calls my house to tell me she had a dream that I had the baby. I responded in a sarcastic way well your dream is wrong I’m home and baby is still in my belly, and she started laughing says ok call me when you’re ready and she hangs up on me.

Sure enough by 7am I couldn’t sleep I went to the bathroom noticed I was bleeding. I rushed to call my mom she says to me calm down is going to be ok. Make sure you shower and wear comfortable clothing and have the baby’s stuff ready to take to the hospital. At that moment

I realized that I was about to really be someone’s mom at sixteen. By 2:19pm I became a mother it was the most wonderful experience I have ever had in my life that little angel crying was mine.

All the scary feeling went away I knew that moment that all I had was her and she has was me even if I was just